Harsh Weather, Sailor’s Death Taint Global Race

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

It was a somber arrival in Portsmouth, England last night for the crew of the boat ABN AMRO II competing in the Volvo ocean race. Last week, one of their crew men, Hans Horrevoets, was washed overboard in the North Atlantic and died. His fellow sailors were able to recover his body and bring it with them on the boat. But on Sunday, they had to turn around to rescue the crew of a rival boat, Movistar. Its keel had cracked and the boat was taking on water in 30 foot waves.

This leg of the race is being called one of the most traumatic in its history. The race began in 1973 as the whip read round the world race(ph). Glenn Bourke is the chief executive of the race. He was in Portsmouth last night as the sailors walked on shore.

Mr. GLENN BOURKE (Chief Executive Officer, Volvo Ocean Race): Some of them looked pleased to be hugging their friends and family. And others looked very emotional about the whole ordeal. I guess some of them looked like they had had enough really and they'd done everything in their power to get themselves back to get Hans Horrevoets back to shore, and also to save the Movistar crew in the middle of the whole thing and I guess they looked like they were just pleased to be back on shore and back with their loved ones.

BLOCK: Sure. Some of the sailors on that boat had a news conference today and talked about the ordeal and what happened last Thursday, and they described 15 foot waves, 40 knot winds. And then one of them said, one nose dive and Hans was not on board. They also said that he was not wearing a life jacket or a harness. Did that surprise you?

Mr. BOURKE: Well no. I pretty much figured that out because he wouldn't have gone very far from the boat if he was wearing a harness. And there's a lot of reasons why he might not be clicked on, moving around the boat or perhaps the wind conditions had been lighter and then increased while they were doing maneuvers and I think the guys on ABN AMRO II today basically described that the breeze had been about 14 knots and then it increased very quickly to 25 knots. They put up the spinnaker and started the sail and all of a sudden Hans was overboard.

BLOCK: Why would the sailors not want to wear a life jacket? Does it get in the way?

Mr. BOURKE: Yeah. Yeah, it does. And when they're wearing a lot of other clothing on board, wet weather gear and thermal layers underneath that and underwear. And if its wet, it gets heavy and it restricts your movement. Sometimes it chaffs around your chin and yeah, there's all sorts of reasons why they would choose not to, but, yeah.

BLOCK: Mr. Bourke, the boats in the race this year are bigger than before. They're 70 feet long. They're faster. They're going up to about 50 miles an hour and the new design means they have these huge washes of water coming across the decks. I wonder whether you stop and think, you know, have we reached the limits or exceeded the limits of what these boats should do? In other words, are they just too fast now for humans to be able to control them?

Mr. BOURKE: Well, I don't think so. I mean they've sailed 29,000 nautical miles around the world. And they've sailed in windy conditions and had bigger waves than that. I think this is an accident pure and simple. Yes, there's water over the deck and if you're sailing a cruising boat in the Atlantic in heavy conditions, there would be as well.

BLOCK: And is part of the appeal for those who do the sport that element of risk and that element of danger?

Mr. BOURKE: I'm not sure whether it's the element of danger but it's the element of adventure. I think it's that old pioneering sea dog spirit that lives within many of us that they don't want to be wrapped in cotton. They don't want to have a life which is boring or dull that doesn't push themselves. And this race definitely tests people's character.

BLOCK: Mr. Bourke, thanks very much for talking with us.

Mr. BOURKE: My pleasure.

BLOCK: Glenn Bourke is the CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race. There are two legs left to go. The race ends in Sweden on June 17.

Copyright © 2006 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.